Monday, December 15, 2014

A Roll of White Paper

The late philanthropist Warren Hellman was a friend of my step-daughter, Laurie Lewis, and through her I knew him slightly. He once said that life was rather like a roll of toilet paper: the closer you got to the end, the faster it went. Some folk may remember the controversy in Dear Abby, many years ago about whether the top sheet of paper should come from over or under. Ours is an "over" household- although on one occasion I needed to take off the roll and reverse direction.
Although Barbara and I have been together for over forty-five years, I only recently noted an instance where our respective customs diverge. When I have made use of TP, I always leave one or two sheets of paper ready for the next user. Barbara, on the other hand rolls it up so that no loose paper is showing. In my view, this makes it harder for the next user. We have never spoken about this to each other; we have just continued our respective practices. Our different views on this issue are essentially trivial, so I think there is no end in site for these different approaches. I sometimes wonder how this is handled in other families.